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Paleontology Quotes

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Paleontology Quotes

“The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualist accounts of evolution.”

Has Beens Problem Imagination Cases Stage Design Evolution Majors Evidence Accounts Absence Transition Constructs Inability Fossils Persistent Creationism Nagging Paleontology

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“In vertebrate paleontology, increasing knowledge leads to triumphant loss of clarity.”

Knows Science Loss Knowledge Clarity Triumphant Paleontology Vertebrates Increasing Knowledge

Author:Alfred Romer

“Perhaps generations of students of human evolution, including myself, have been flailing about in the dark; that our data base is too sparse, too slippery, for it to be able to mold our theories. Rather the theories are more statements about us and ideology than about the past. Paleontology reveals more about how humans view themselves than it does about how humans came about, but that is heresy.”

Humans Doe Has Beens Able Past Dark Views Generations Students Theory Evolution Including Statements Ideology Data Mold Heresy Slippery Human Evolution Paleontology Flailing

Author:David Pilbeam

“The more one studies paleontology, the more certain one becomes that evolution is based upon faith alone; exactly the same sort of faith which is necessary to have when one encounters the great mysteries of religion....The only alternative is the doctrine of special creation, which may be true, but irrational.”

May Certain Study Mystery Special Creation Evolution Doctrine Being True Alternatives Encounters Irrational Paleontology

Author:Louis T. Moore

“Mary Anning [is] probably the most important unsung (or inadequately sung) collecting force in the history of paleontology.”

Important Science Force Importance Mary Collecting Paleontology

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“The facts of paleontology seem to support creation and the flood rather than evolution. For instance, all the major groups of invertebrates appear "suddenly" in the first fossil ferrous strata (Cambrian) of the earth with their distinct specializations indicating that they were all created almost at the same time.”

Firsts Facts Seems Earth Support Groups Creation Evolution Majors Instance Flood Fossils Specialization Paleontology Invertebrates

Author:Enoch

“Transitional forms are generally lacking at the species level, but they are abundant between larger groups.”

Form Levels Groups Species Lacking Fossils Paleontology Infuriating Biological Evolution

Book:Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History

Source: Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History

“We know evolution happened not because of transitional fossils such as A. natans but because of the convergence of evidence from such diverse fields as geology, paleontology, biogeography, comparative anatomy and physiology, molecular biology, genetics, and many more.”

Knows Happened Fields Evolution Evidence Biology Diverse Fossils Genetics Anatomy Geology Physiology Convergence Paleontology Molecular Biology Anatomy And Physiology

Book:Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design

Source: Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design

“Human paleontology shares a peculiar trait with such disparate subjects as theology and extraterrestrial biology: it contains more practitioners than objects for study.”

Humans Study Share Subjects Objects Theology Biology Peculiar Traits Extraterrestrial Paleontology

Author:David Pilbeam

“A large number of well-trained scientists outside of evolutionary biology and paleontology have unfortunately gotten the idea that the fossil record is far more Darwinian than it is. This probably comes from the oversimplification inevitable in secondary sources: low-level textbooks semipopular articles, and so on. Also, there is probably some wishful thinking involved. In the years after Darwin, his advocates hoped to find predictable progressions. In general. these have not been found-yet the optimism has died hard and some pure fantasy has crept into textbooks.”

“I also discovered the only complete Brontosaurus skull.”

Discovery Skulls Dinosaurs Completeness Paleontology

Author:Robert T. Bakker

“I am not, personally, a believer or a religious man in any sense of institutional commitment or practice. But I have a great respect for religion, and the subject has always fascinated me, beyond almost all others (with a few exceptions, like evolution and paleontology).”

Men Science Religion Religious Practice Subjects Evolution Commitment Believer Exception Fascinated Great Respect Paleontology

Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History

Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History